When watching a television broadcast or other video program and something of interest is being shown, it is difficult for the viewer to write down the information in the limited amount of time that it is typically displayed. For example, when watching a television broadcast and a telephone number or address is given out, unless the viewer has a writing utensil and paper readily available, it is difficult to get the pencil and paper and write down the information while it is still being displayed. If a video recorder is not already set up to record when the information is displayed, it is also difficult to initiate recording while the information is displayed, due to the mechanical latency inherent in some conventional video recorders, such as a video cassette recorder (VCR).
Other types of conventional video recorders store live video as digital information, much as a personal computer stores information using a hard disk drive. Many such conventional video recorders include the ability to capture an image currently displayed on a television without any mechanical latency. However, unless the video recorder includes sufficient system resources, the process of capturing a displayed image typically causes a visual disturbance on the television while the image is captured. Including the sufficient system resources necessary to overcome these visual disturbances increases the cost of the video recorder.